In the following essay, Day characterizes Ce qu'ils dissent ou rien as an autobiographical novel and a significant work in the evolution of Ernaux's narrative technique.

In an article which presents an overview of the relationship between autobiography and fiction in French literature in the last twenty years, Jacques Lecarme cites Annie Ernaux as a writer who is fully committed to the exploration of ‘les voies du récit vrai’.1

The appropriateness of Lecarme's remark with respect to Ernaux's ongoing preoccupations as a writer is beyond dispute. Since the publication of La place (1984), Annie Ernaux has produced texts which work on lived experience in a style that is direct and unadorned.2 She seeks to elucidate ‘le vécu obscurément subi’,3 ever...